OKLAHOMA CITY — General Revenue Fund (GRF) collections in December missed the official monthly estimate by 12.3 percent and are 2.7 percent below the estimate for the first six months of the fiscal year as most major tax categories lagged behind projections.

“The news is not as good as we might have hoped coming out of the holiday season,” said Secretary of Finance, Administration and Information Technology Preston L. Doerflinger. “This will be a challenging time as we face a nearly $900 million budget hole and a necessity to find more recurring revenue sources. As I’ve said many times, we’re not going to cut our way out of this situation.”

As state government’s main operating fund, the GRF is the key indicator of state government’s fiscal status and the predominant funding source for the annual appropriated state budget. GRF collections are revenues that remain for the appropriated state budget after rebates, refunds and mandatory apportionments. Gross collections, reported by the State Treasurer, are all revenues collected by the state before rebates, refunds and mandatory apportionments.

GRF collections in December totaled $419.6 million, which is $58.8 million, or 12.3 percent, below the official estimate upon which the fiscal year 2017 appropriated state budget was based and $43.1 million, or 9.3 percent, below prior year collections. Total GRF collections through the first six months of FY 2017 are $2.4 billion, which is $66 million, or 2.7 percent, below the estimate and $209.1 million, or 8 percent, below prior year collections.

“All state agencies have a responsibility to be diligent in monitoring all sources of revenue and adjusting their budgets and expenditures as needed,” Doerflinger said. “There will be some tough decisions to make as we continue to face dwindling revenue and a large budget hole.”Doerflinger is director of OMES, which issues the monthly GRF reports.

Major tax categories in December contributed the following amounts to the GRF:• Total income tax collections of $178.1 million were $45.9 million, or 20.5 percent, below the estimate and $48.8 million, or 21.5 percent, below the prior year.

Individual income tax collections of $178.1 million were $32.1 million, or 15.3 percent, below the estimate and $48.8 million, or 21.5 percent, below the prior year. Corporate income tax collections were entirely consumed by refunds and contributed nothing to the General Revenue Fund. This was the case for the same month last year, as well.

• Sales tax collections of $159.8 million were $6.9 million, or 4.2 percent, below the estimate and $3.3 million, or 2 percent, below the prior year.

• Gross production tax collections of $15.4 million were $2 million, or 14.6 percent, above the estimate and $6.2 million, or 67 percent, above the prior year.

Natural gas collections of $13.4 million were $702,000, or 5.5 percent, above the estimate and $4.5 million, or 51.2 percent, above the prior year.

Oil collections of $2 million were $1.3 million, or 169.1 percent, above the estimate and $1.6 million, or 457.3 percent, above the prior year.